


No Such Thing as Nonlethal

by Glinda



Category: Leverage
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Tasers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 17:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14753174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: Non-lethal is a relative term when it comes to weaponry.





	No Such Thing as Nonlethal

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the daily prompt - no such thing as nonlethal

Eliot can feel the tremors running through his nerves, second-hand though the shock was. For a moment there he’d been utterly certain that this was it. That after everything else he’d survived, he was going to die at the hands of some second rate thug, in a two-bit down town in the middle of nowhere. It’s a risk he takes every time he gets in a fight, as good as he is, as hard as he trains, he has to be lucky every time, they only have to get lucky once. 

The thud of the thug’s body hitting the floor has a particular finality to it. Eliot knows without looking that he won’t be getting up again. There’s a soft clatter, he recognises the sound, but he doesn’t want to identify it or acknowledge what it means. He needs to catch his breath first. It’s Alec’s expression that makes him turn around to face his rescuer. Parker’s hands are in her hair – her Taser on the floor - and her expression is distraught, but her eyes are hard and unflinching. She is both horrified by what she’s done and utterly unrepentant. 

“I had to,” she says, a statement, though it comes out more like a question, “He’d have killed Eliot.”

Eliot touches his throat at the sudden sting he feels, and his fingers come away bloody. He’d been seconds away from having his throat slit, closer than even he had realised. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Alec stutters, then continues more confidently, “it was practically self-defence, he’d have killed us all. You weren’t to know he had a weak heart or whatever.”

“Thank you,” Eliot tells her, making sure to meet her eyes, trying to convey what he actually means is ‘sorry’. Sorry she had to do that, that he couldn’t protect her from having to do that, sorry that he couldn’t protect Alec from having to know that she was capable of doing that. Doing what Alec couldn’t. Sorry that this isn’t just their secret any more. 

Then suddenly both Parker and Alec are moving and Eliot finds himself caught in a tangle of arms, as they attempt to hug both each other and him all at once. He lets himself cling back to them. He’s too relieved at being alive to be truly sorry, or embarrassed or angry. He doesn’t remember when that changed, when he started to value his own life again. He’d gladly die for them, but he’s not sorry to be alive. 

“Guess there really is no such thing as a nonlethal weapon when it comes to you two.” Alec mutters and Eliot shares a rueful smile with Parker. As though they could ever hide anything that fundamental about themselves from him. The knowledge that he really understands who they are and what they’re capable of, that he appreciates the way they don’t do what they’re capable of so much of the time, is weirdly comforting. 

To be known and loved anyway: is a rare gift.


End file.
